Juan Adams: ‘Greg Hardy has the emotional control of a toddler’

UFC heavyweight Juan Adams checks in to talk about his Octagon debut TKO victory over Chris de la Rocha at UFC Milwaukee last month.

“The Kraken” also discusses his rapid ascent in the sport’s heavyweight division, competing on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, if he had Octagon jitters for his UFC debut and what that night was like for him and more throughout his short career.

“Basically — what I saw — he looked ok in the first round,” Adams said. “He has zero ground game, zero wrestling defense. He got taken down from, what I call, an inferior wrestler to myself. Anyone who knows anything about combat sports would say the same thing. He’s not very good. Even though he won the first round, he was in danger. If I had Greg Hardy in a crucifix, he’s not getting up. The fact that Allen Crowder had that position and couldn’t finish the fight says volumes about him. He got lucky that Greg Hardy got panicked and took the easy way out.

“You could see the frustration building on Greg Hardy’s face the entire fight,” Adams continued. “Going into the second round, he had never been there before, and he didn’t know what to do. Allen Crowder was talking to him, he got in his head and it showed. Greg Hardy proved what we already know, that he’s got the emotional control of a toddler. He’s a mental midget. As soon as he got tested, he looked for the easy way out. He took the easy way out and I feel like he wasn’t going to win that fight in any way shape or form. He won the first round but he was gassed. You look at two professional athletes and they’re laying on the ground after seven minutes of work. No matter how tired I’ve been in a fight, I’ve never laid down like that. It was really pathetic to me and it wasn’t worthy of a co-main event.

“Honestly, I’d rather watch Derrick Lewis and Francis Ngannou again. It was that bad. Greg Hardy proved that he is not ready. I don’t think the UFC will give him another fight for another 6 to 8 months and they’re gonna hope that he actually trains and takes it seriously. In my opinion, theres no amount of work he’ll ever be able to do to get on my level. That’s just a fact.”

In addition, Adams says that Hardy’s management team has reached out about joining the stable of combat sports talent and explains the one thing that would have to happen for that to all work out. Plus, the unbeaten heavyweight looks into his crystal ball to predict how a fight with Greg Hardy would play out.